AN: Most of the songs used in the stories are one you can find on youtube, if you want me to write in the name of the song as well as the band, just leave me a note.

"I could feel a hot one taking me down for a moment, I could feel the force. Fainted to the point of tears, and you were holding on to make a point." - Manchester Orchestra

Chapter One

At 8:45 pm Hadeel Brosk did what she had been doing since the beginning of the term, cleaning up paint in her art classroom and wiping down the tables before gathering up her backpack and art supplies. It had been a long day for her, as it always was on Mondays and Wednesdays when she had class from eleven in the morning until nine at night. Not that she minded, it was the way that she had set up her schedule, this way she would be open more days to work during the week. She was currently in her third term of college, taking classes in Gotham where her family had always lived, and living with her parents and two younger sisters.

With brown hair and eyes that changed from green to blue sometimes people would comment about how her eyes looked abnormally green that day and that perhaps the shirt she was wearing had something to do with it. She would smile and laugh, joking about how she never cared what color her eyes were because they always seemed to change on her. With pale skin that burned and peeled rather than tanned theres nothing else that seems special about this girl.

On this particular night Hadeel looked out the window into the rain that had started to fall an hour ago and it had still not let up at all, her teacher gave a short laugh before suggesting that Hadeel leave her portfolio in the classroom. Of course Hadeel had to agree, she didn't want her art to get wet and ruined, plus her car was a little ways walk away from the building.

Looking out gloomily into the rain Hadeel couldn't help but let her depressing thoughts come back to her. It was barely the start of the term, she and her friend had taken the art class together so they would both be stuck at school until nine, it would be a little tough sometimes but they were together, so it wouldn't matter. At the start of the third week that friend dropped the class and ditched Hadeel to take a class with a guy she liked. That left Hadeel to take the class alone with a bunch of strangers that would smile at her from across the room before going back to their work.

She couldn't tell her friend that she was angry at her, mostly because she was just sad that her friend would leave her for a guy, that she was less compared to him. With sad thoughts swallowing her mood Hadeel did her best to hide her bag beneath her jacket before running off into the rain, hoping that nothing would get too wet on the way to her car.

Her footsteps could be heard as splashes as she bounded her way across campus towards the small parking lot that was deserted save for a few cars that belonged to other art students. Feeling her grip on her bag loosen she pulled it up suddenly grasping at it frantically when she thought something might have fallen. By now her hair was soaking and sticking to her face, making her huff and push it out of her eyes grumpily, finally she got to her car and fumbled into her bag for her keys.

She couldn't find them.

Feeling of dread suddenly flooded her being as she desperately searched through her bag for the magical key that would open her car, but she couldn't find it.

"No," she exclaimed exasperated. "Why me? Why tonight? Why in the rain?" She cried and complained into the dark night sky.

Growling angrily at herself she looked through her bag again, whimpering when she saw raindrops beginning to show on the papers in her bag. Her mind raced through everything she had done before leaving the classroom, her keys were in her bag, and she'd checked them before exiting out of the classroom and into the rain.

"So I dropped them in the rain?" She questioned herself trying to recall what had happened. Mumbling miserably to herself she pushed her bag under her car and took off her jacket to put beneath her bag, as if the extra cloth would create some sort of protection. This left her to run back towards the courtyard in her sweater, desperately wishing that somewhere along the way she would step on her keys and wouldn't have to scour the ground for them.

It just wasn't her day today, first there had been family issues, then her boss had cut her hours again, and then her friend dropped the class, everything bad was happening today. Hadeel had to note to herself that if it had been raining earlier in the day she would have rejoiced and run around in it for a little while. But no, it had to wait until nightfall to say hello to Gotham.

Feeling angry at herself all over again she began to search the ground, hoping that the little bit of light that was given off would help her find something shiny on the ground, alas there was no such thing as hope for her tonight.

It had taken her twenty minutes to finally give up and sit on a bench wretchedly, she was soaked to the bone, as a grandmother might say, her measly sweater had done nothing but add weight to her form. Glancing back at the parking lot she saw that her car was the only one that still remained, she could see the white color of it faintly in the dim light of the streetlights. Shivering and shaking in the rain she wondered if she could somehow get back into the building, that perhaps she could borrow a phone and call her parents.

They wouldn't be happy when they found out that she lost her keys, but for now all she wanted to do was get home, take a warm shower, and wallow in the sorrow that she would not express to anyone. Her mother would frown and shake her head, commenting about something before going on about what had happened at work that day, and then her father would ask how her day went besides losing her keys. But he wouldn't really listen.

Pulling her legs to her chest Hadeel tried to find any sort of warmth that her body might offer her, stifling a laugh as she thought about what her parents would do, she knew them all too well. Her sisters were probably watching some T.V show with an attractable guy character, or talking to their friends about someone at school. While her brothers were playing video games and would still be playing them for another five hours before finally crashing and letting sleep consume them.

Closing her eyes slowly Hadeel could feel the warmth of her blankets on her skin, the smell of clean shirts and dirty socks, the constant talking from the room next to her that belonged to her sister, and the fast drabble of conversation from the living room. It was all routine for her, a warm homely routine that her family followed almost every night, something that comforted Hadeel at times, but at the same time suffocated her.

Opening her eyes to the cold and wet reality that was her life at the moment she tilted her head towards the sky before letting her soaked shoes touch the ground and splash in the never ending puddle that seemed to be the sidewalk. Looking quickly towards the nearest building she saw that there was only one light still left on, glancing towards the rest of the buildings she tried to figure out which one might still be open.

Finding her legs again she started off at a slow jog towards the first building, praying that the doors would be open she didn't notice the fact that her hands were just as cold as the metal when she grabbed the handle and pulled. A choked metal sound found her ears when the door tugged slightly but did not open, a frown and a growl escaped Hadeel's lips before she sprinted off towards the next set of doors.

No such luck found her at any of the other doors on the first or second building, which meant that there was only one building left, this one always kept its lights on but sometimes it wasn't even open in the mornings.

Feeling her hands shake from the cold Hadeel felt like crying, she felt like shouting into the sky and cursing whomever might be watching her and laughing with amusement. Turning her head lazily to the left as she walked towards the last set of doors she saw a small bit of overhang that seemed to be blocking the rain and providing a small chance of dryness.

"Please, please, please," she murmured as her fingers curled around the handle of the last door. Giving it a tug she almost let out a scream of anger when the door made the same choked metal sound but didn't open.

Now everything that she had been holding back for the past week came crashing down on her as she stood in the rain and looked at the doors with hate and despair on her face.

"Someone really hates me," she whispered to herself painfully.

Trudging back towards the bit of dryness that she had seen earlier Hadeel sat against the wall and looked out at the rain that she felt was almost mocking her with its steady rhythm and beat. Seeing her own sopping wet shoes ticked her off as she cursed herself for not thinking to check the weather before coming to school that day, then again she never check the weather before so she wouldn't have checked it anyway.

"I guess I'll just wait for the rain to let up," she whispered to herself.

It was weird, talking to herself at school, but there was no one else that would care to listen or even think her weird for talking to herself in the first place. Somehow she knew that the rain would not let up as quickly as she hoped so she let her mind wander, filling her brain with different ideas for stories she might want to write. Characters that she was still developing, songs that she had been listening to before going to school that morning, and bands that she really liked. Her eyes glazed over as she let herself fall into a sort of trance as her thoughts circled back to the miserable feeling of being wet she blinked and came back into reality.

This was the reality that she hated right now, losing her keys in the rain in the dark, the buildings not being open, the feeling of being less then someone else, and everything else that she was feeling. She wondered faintly what tomorrow would be like, having a fleeting thought of sleeping at the college through the night made her shiver. Eventually, she hoped, her parents would realize that she hadn't gotten home yet and would come to get her, that perhaps they might be worrying about her and coming to get her right now.

If only she could believe her own thoughts.

After a few minutes of silence Hadeel felt that the night was too silent, that the dark was beginning to feel a little scary, and that the air was growing colder. Her mind started to race as images of dead bodies began to flood her vision, news reports talking about how a college student had been killed on a rainy night. She had to block everything out before allowing her mind to become numb with words and meanings.

"Cold, dark sea," she started off the song softly. Reveling in the sound that came off the walls behind her and next to her, she felt a little bit of scariness leave her form as the familiar song threaded through the night air. "Wrapping its arms around me," her own arms tightened around her form as she shivered again from the cold. "Pulling me down to the deep," her voice grew a little bit louder as she sang. "All eyes on me," she sang finishing the first two lines.

"All eyes on me," she added in a small voice.

This was how she usually ended her day, all throughout art class she would hum or sing a little bit of whatever song happened to be stuck in her head. Then she would leave class and song that song all the way to her car, save for tonight when the rain had stolen her voice away from her and pushed her into a corner. This was how she kept herself happy and contained.

030

It had already been raining for a couple hours when Bane walked towards the only college that Gotham had, small and discreet, with only three buildings, it almost seemed hidden away from the tainted city. There was no reason for the man to be at the college, but he figured that if he was going to be in charge of the city in the future the out to know it a bit better. It would allow him to navigate through the streets and find his way around the town without needing any sort of help.

The buildings were locked he could tell that much just by the way they were lit, scarcely, one light, and a handful of lights, mean to look like there might still be someone there when there was no one at all. In the parking lot he could see one car, a white older looking vehicle that might belong to a professor, who else would still be here at 9:45pm? Certainly not a student.

Taking powerful steps into a more open area of the school Bane felt something crunch beneath his shoes. Stepping back he reached down and grabbed at the object on the ground, feeling cold metal in his hands he saw that it was a keychain with about five keys on it and a small weird looking creature that looked dirty from the rain. It's small cloth eyes looked up at him without any sort of emotion as there was no trace of a smile stitched anywhere on the face. Faintly Bane wondered if perhaps that car was still in the parking lot because these keys were on the ground, would he be finding an older man or woman walking around in the rain?

Walking around the campus more Bane pulled his coat closer to his body and dropped the keys into his pocket, he'd made sure to grab a coat that was rain resistant or at least somewhat rain resistant, as he knew it was going to rain. The water beneath his boots splashed and jumped as he wandered aimlessly through the buildings and into more of a courtyard area, listening to the steady fall of the rain he stopped short when he could hear a different sound.

A soft, throaty, and smooth sound wafted towards his ears before the rain seemed to drown out the sound angrily. Bane took a step towards the sound again when he heard it break through the steady sound of rain falling against the sidewalk, stopping when he saw a figure curled up against a wall he waited for the sound to come back.

Finally he could hear words break through and command his attention and ears, certainly this was the person that had lost their keys and given up hope for now.

"Your waves are rocking me, I close my eyes and fall asleep," the girl's voice moved through the rain like a snake. Her voice was breathy and reminded Bane of how one might sound if they whispered into a microphone, but it was nice, a good companion to the sounds of the rain. "All eyes on me, your eyes on me." She finished the song before turning towards his direction and letting her eyes widen slightly at the sight of him watching her.

Her face was stony at first as she looked at him in surprise, quickly the expression disappeared and she stood up shakily and took a few steps towards him. Bane had a hood over his head, shadowing his face from her sight, hiding his mask from her eyes; he watched her careful steps and noticed the shiver in her body.

"It's dry under here in you need a place to rest and get out of the rain," she said forcing a smile onto her face. Her short brown hair was damp and perhaps had dried off a little from being dry for however long she had been avoiding the rain; strong green blue eyes stared at him kindly as a smile broke out onto her face. "Unless you like getting soaked that is," she murmured under her breath lazily.

This made Bane smile slightly; he'd expected the girl to get fearful of him, as most people would. A tall dark figure staring at you in the rain, what about that doesn't scream danger, danger?

"Have you lost something child?" Bane questioned watching to see what her reaction might be. Her expression didn't change much, though her eyes seemed to glance away from his form for a few seconds.

"Did you find something?" She finally asked searching for his eyes.

There was a small sound of something jingling as Bane pulled the keys from his pocket and threw them at her figure. The girl fumbled around frantically before catching her keys and letting a bit of a triumphant look flash across her face as she held them in her hands.

"Piece of crap," he heard her whisper to her keys softly. She glared at them darkly, letting her eyes thin and turn cold before she looked back at him with a new expression on her face.

"Thank you, thank you so much," she said letting a pained tone enter her voice for a second before it was gone. "You don't know how long I looked for these," she explained squeezing some water from the small cloth creature.

"The pleasure was all mine, merely walked by them," he said letting his voice echo through the air. It was silent for a moment as the girl tried to find something to say to the man she didn't know, and had no knowledge of what he was planning on doing.

"I have to go but, if you're ever walking by here again, I'll be in the art room. Find me, I'll give you something as a thank you, a better thank you," she explained tightening her grip on her keys.

"Possibly," Bane murmured watching a smile creep onto her face.

"Okay," she grinned before running into the rain and past him. "Have a good night," she called back to him before fading into the dark space around him.

Faintly he heard a car start before once again the rain drowned out any other sort of sound, would he end up coming back to the college? Maybe, maybe not. He was curious, what would the girl give him that he could possibly want?

030

Hadeel grumbled and shivered in her car as she noted to herself that her car seat was more than likely getting damp and nasty from her wet person. Monday's really were the worst days of the week, in all the madness of the rain and looking for her keys she had forgotten that it was, in fact, a Monday. This just gave her another reason to hate the wretched awful day that no one ever seemed to like, poor Monday.

Thinking back to the man that had given her back her keys Hadeel found herself getting lost in thought as she remembered his voice. It was different, unlike anything she had ever heard before, but at the same time calming and new, she wished that he'd spoken more so she could have heard it. The voice was hard to describe, metallic maybe? Almost a little mechanical, and it also sounded old, all things that Hadeel seem to gravitate towards whenever she was interested in someone.

Parking in the parking garage next to her parent's apartment she left her bag in her car, not wanting to get it wet because she needed to carry it upstairs, and thought further of the man. She had not seen his face, didn't know what he looked like, couldn't recognize his body features, but she did know his voice. If he ever came back to the college he would have to speak to her in order for her to know who he was, or perhaps he wouldn't, depending on whether or not Hadeel would feel that she knew him. Then again it all came down to if he would ever show up at the college again, and if he would seek her out as she had suggested.

Opening her door with her key Hadeel smiled as she looked at the keys, there were still nice people in the world who helped strangers.

Immediately her mind corrected her of that thought, when she had first seen the man standing in the rain and staring at her, the first thought that entered her mind was.

Run. He might want to kill you.

Then her brain got the better of her thoughts as she offered him a dry place to stand next to her, not many people like being stuck in the rain. Even if it looked like the man had a pretty decent coat on she couldn't imagine that he liked having rain pelt him as he walked around for whatever reason he was walking around. She didn't know if he really was a killer or not, or if he liked to kill babies for fun or something terrible like that. For all she knew he could have been hoping that she had something valuable to steal, but instead he had given her back her keys, and for that simple reason she felt that he was a good person.

Though she could be horribly wrong the realization was nice, because Hadeel was really in the need of someone nice in her life right now, even if she didn't know his name or even what he looked like.

"I knew it," a voice brought Hadeel's attention back to reality. Her father was looking at her from over the couch, where he was sitting in front of the T.V and probably watching the news that he claimed was oh so important.

"What?" Hadeel questioned dropping her keys on the counter and staring at him.

"You were running in the rain, and that's why you were getting home later," he mused smiling at her. Hadeel glanced at the microwave clock to see that it was already 10:45pm, that it had taken her almost two hours longer to get home instead of the usual ten minute drive back to the apartment. "Your class ends at ten, right?" He questioned turning back towards the television, dismissing her.

"Sure dad," she muttered turning to go towards her room. She'd lost count of how many times she'd told him that her class ended at 8:45pm and that she would likely be home by nine, somehow he always forgot about that.

Walking past her sister's room Hadeel could hear the fain murmur of whatever T.V show Margo might be watching, probably drooling over some guy that she thought was quite hot. Next she passed her youngest sister's room, Alana, there was no noise coming from behind the door, only the faint glow of something that was turned on and being stared at.

Sometimes people commented on how different Hadeel and her sisters names were, she would have to explain to them that her mother wanted to feel like she had children from all over the world and given them such names. Hadeel was Arabic, Margo was French, and Alana was Irish, or at least according to whatever book or person had told her such was true, her brothers had slightly more common names, but not much better. The only thing that Hadeel liked about her name was that it had never been repeated at school. Sometimes there were two Megan's, or three Emily's in a class, but there was never two Hadeel's, plus it was kind of fun to hear teachers stumble over pronouncing her name.

Hadeel's two younger sisters both seemed to hate her, not that they specifically expressed or voiced their hate for their elder sibling, it was just the way they acted and threw around words that made Hadeel frown. They were turning into the teenagers that Hadeel hated, the ones that were messy and loud and never cleaned up after themselves, the kind that didn't listen and didn't care about what you told them to do. Just like all the other teenagers that looked at everyone like they were better than them, granted there are a handful of good, friendly teenagers that have not crossed over to the dark side. But they tend to hide away behind the ones that are loud and dismissive, simply because they hate them as well and would rather not be seen with such awful creatures.

Finally getting to her own room Hadeel opened the door to darkness; their apartment was on the eleventh floor, an older building that her family had lived in since they'd moved to Gotham when Hadeel was nine. She liked the city, but all in all she missed where she had grown up as a child, mostly she missed the idea of her friends who had forgotten her, a dark memory that had scarred her heart.

Changing out of her damp clothing and into a large T-shirt Hadeel walked back down the hall towards the bathroom to see the familiar long brown hair of her sister Margo leaving the walking through the door.

"What did you do, run around in the rain for an hour?" She commented slyly letting her sister walk past.

"Does it matter?" Hadeel questioned looking at her sister with a bored, dull expression.

"No, I'm going to sleep," she snapped turning around and leaving her sister to stare at her back grumpily.

"Then why did you ask?" Hadeel murmured under her breath unhappily.

Margo was one of those people that would seem totally fine one moment and then snap and start yelling and making snide comments at you the next, not that she was bipolar or something like that. She just had a quick temper that Hadeel hated. Most of the time Hadeel and Margo got along just fine, but there were moments would the beast would show its ugly face and Margo would start getting sassy and snide with her older sister. There was no respect in this family.

Ridding herself of the large T-shirt Hadeel turned the shower on and waited for it to warm up while she watched the mirror grow slightly foggy in protest. The air in the bathroom started to feel heavy as she continued to breathe slowly; her thoughts were immediately drawn back to the mystery man. Would she ever see him again?

Stepping into the scalding water Hadeel whimpered lowly as she jumped away from the terrible hotness that burned her skin, turning the water to a colder setting she stepped into the warm water and sighed, the perfect ending to a terrible day. At least she didn't have work tomorrow, she could go back to school and pick up her portfolio so she could work on it at home for the day, maybe do some reading, and just relax. Though she would hold her keys in her hand the whole time, or in her pocket, as she did not want a repeat of what had happened tonight.

Her mind was in a daze for the rest of the shower as she tried to imagine what the man might look like, thought she couldn't match the voice with any sort of man she'd ever seen, everyone she knew was so normal. Drying off her hair and putting the huge T-shirt back on her form Hadeel exited the bathroom, frowning at the cold feeling of the air outside the bathroom she walked towards her room. The light was still on, making a bit of yellow brightness glow out into the dark hallway, the carpet beneath her feet felt almost rugged, not that she really cared.

Looking at her calendar she crossed out another day and looked back at all the lines that she had drawn through days that had passed, it already felt like such a long time had gone by since the beginning of the day. It hardly felt fair to only cross out one day instead of two or three. Regardless of that fact Hadeel combed her short hair and went to turn off her light casually, noting the change in carpet beneath her feet as she passed her rug.

The light turned off and Hadeel searched the room as she always did for the glow in the dark stars that seemed to litter her walls and ceiling. Her father had given them to her as a silly Christmas present the year before and she never felt the need to take them down, because sometime she liked to stare at them when she couldn't sleep. There used to be planets as well but they fell off gradually over the course of two months, one had fallen on her face as she slept. Needless to say that planet was never allowed back into her room.

It was weird to think that something that had happened a year before, a day before, or even an hour before felt so far away. For the more she thought about the man with the strange voice the more Hadeel felt that it was more like a dream or a distant memory, that perhaps he wasn't real and she wouldn't see him again.

Shifting her face away from the stars and the door Hadeel shooed the thought out of her mind carelessly, she was thinking about a man she did not know, letting her mind wander around cautiously as she tried to imagine him. Quite frankly she was starting to feel that she was, in fact, as crazy as people said she was sometimes, she didn't know him, why should she care?

"Whats the point?" - Manchester Orchestra

AN: I realize that thus far I have used two Manchester Orchestra songs, that will change. But if you don't know who they are and you like to listen to songs with amazing lyrics, give them a try.

This particular song by them is called 'I Can Feel a Hot One,' and the song in the prologue is called 'I Can Feel Your Pain.'

Thank you for reading.